Therese
Feminine
Therese is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 35,590 girls against 5 boys since 1880.
Therese is the French form of a name that four hundred years of scholarship have failed to explain. Two suggestions circulate for Teresa and neither is established — unusual for a name this consequential.
How old is the name Therese?
Therese was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Therese alive today was born around 1957, making them about 68 years old. About 23,500 people named Therese are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Therese most popular?
Therese peaked in 1927, reaching #220 nationally. Today it ranks #2298, 2,078 places below that high. See the whole 1927 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Teresa to Therese
The story of Therese
Teresa was a Spanish and Portuguese name of limited range until a sixteenth-century Carmelite reformer from Ávila made it one of the most-given names in the Catholic world. A second Thérèse, at Lisieux in the nineteenth century, extended it further and became one of the most popular saints of modern Catholicism. French Thérèse crossed into English-speaking use, and Therese peaked in America in the mid-1950s.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Not established. The two most-repeated suggestions are the Greek theros, 'summer', and the island of Therasia near Santorini. Both are reconstructions working backwards from the sound. The name appears first in Spain and Portugal, which is where the trail both begins and stops.
How the name formed
- Teresa
- Thérèse
- Therese
Related forms: Thérèse · Therese · Teresa · Teresa
Pronouncing Therese
tuh-REZ
Two syllables, stress on the second. German says teh-RAY-zuh with three.
Nicknames for Therese
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 19601,197 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #220reached in 1927
- Change vs 2022
- +16.2%79 in 2025, from 68
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Therese in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Thérèse in French — same name
- Therese in German — same name
- Teresa in Spanish — related form
- Teresa in Italian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Ohio.
Thereses among us
people named Therese are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 20,345 born in 2025 was named Therese
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Zelma test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Therese's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Zelma climbed just as high around 1902, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Zelma's path sketches the road Therese is walking now.
Therese sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Therese is headed
Therese looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 23% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Therese beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Therese in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two documented and remarkable bearers stand behind it, both of them writers.
- It is spelled identically in French and German.
- Tess is available as a short form with real currency now.
- The meaning is genuinely unrecovered.
- The French and German pronunciations differ in syllable count.
- Teresa and Theresa are both commoner in English.
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What they receive
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Therese
Feminine · #2298 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Thereses are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 23,500 people named Therese are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Therese in 2025?
- Therese ranks #2298 among US girl names in 2025, with 79 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Therese?
- About 1 in every 20,345 US girls born in 2025 was named Therese — 79 in all.
- Will my child share the name Therese with classmates?
- Therese will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Therese
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Skylah#2298 · Khelani#2298 · Jennie#2298 · Jahzara#2298 · Shyla#2298 · Emelyn#2298 · Shira#2298 · Layna#2298
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Therese? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Therese and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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